Krugger wins 2014 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building

Freddie ‘Krugger’ Bertrand joined the exclusive club of multiple title winning World Champions when he took top honors in the 2014 World Championship of Custom Bike Building with his BMW K1600 engined masterpiece called Nurb’s. Krugger, who is a regular competitor at the AMD World Championship, beat 69 other builders from 22 countries to once again lift the coveted Freestyle class trophy.

This is the second Championship win for Belgian Krugger, who took his first title at the 2010 Championship in Sturgis, USA where he competed with the V-Rod-based Veon. His victory makes him the only person other than Canadian three-time World Champion Roger Goldammer to win the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building more than once.

After an initial approach from BMW to work on a collaborative project, Krugger then received a customer commission to build a bike and the two projects became one in the form of the Art Deco inspired Nurb’s, which not only uses the BMW straight-six motor but also retains all of the stock bike’s electronics, including the fuel injection and ABS. This feat is even more astounding given that the stock BMW brakes have been changed out for Krugger’s preferred option of French-made Beringers.

While Krugger was working with state-of-the-art technology, Finland’s Veikko Sikiö, took a completely different approach with his second placed bike, built almost entirely from scratch. Using casting techniques in his workshop he created the 800cc V-twin motor, carbs and many other parts for his build.

Another unusual engine choice was at the center of the third placed machine in the Freestyle class, where Abarth from North Coast Customs, in Italy, was built around a Fiat 500 engine mated to a Rivera Primo transmission. Builder Francesco Bella also incorporated a unique front end that featured adjustable rake.

An unusual drivetrain choice is also a feature of Nimbus, the bike which won the Retro Modified class for Tomáš Turner. After being the runner up in the class in 2013 Tomáš, the owner of Czech Republic shop TMT Moto, returned this year with a 1951 Nimbus straight-four motorcycle engine and drivetrain fitted into a stretch wishbone Harley frame.

It was a similar story in the Modified Harley class, too, where last year’s runner-up, Germany’s One Way Machine, returned this year and took the win. Brougham, built by Julian Von Oheimb, is a 2001 Softail given an old school look through the use of a heavily modified Dyna front end, Firestone tires and Panhead style rocker boxes, among other things.

Style-wise it was the complete opposite in the Street Performance class where France’s Riverside Motocyclettes combined a hardtail frame with a Buell XB12 front end, and an Ultima 127ci motor to create Springster, which hints at hard riding with its use of a race car style tacho with shift lights and slick Continental Race Attack tires.

Race inspiration also influenced the design of France’s Café Racer’s 750 CR, the bike that took the win in the Cafe Racer class. In true cafe racer style the Ducati/Cagiva 750 engined machine features a Ceriani drum brake in the front wheel, low-set clip-on handlebars, and a single racing hump seat.

This year’s World Championship was the first to be held at the INTERMOT expo in Koeln, Germany, a bi-annual trade/public event which regularly draws over 200,000 visitors.

FREESTYLE CLASS
1 Krugger Motorcycles – “Nurb’s”
2 Veikko Sikkio – “WSA”
3 North Coast Custom – “Fiat Abarth”